Government

The Federal Trade Commission sued Facebook, alleging that the company is illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct. Following a lengthy investigation in cooperation with a coalition of attorneys general of 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam, the complaint alleges that Facebook has engaged in a systematic strategy—including its 2012 acquisition of up-and-coming rival Instagram, its 2014 acquisition of the mobile messaging app WhatsApp, and the imposition of anticompetitive conditions on software developers—to eliminate threats to its monopoly. This course of conduct harms competition, leaves consumers with few choices for personal social networking, and deprives advertisers of the benefits of competition.

The Federal Trade Commission has released a new publication for online influencers that lays out the agency’s rules of the road for when and how influencers must disclose sponsorships to their followers.

The U.S. Census Bureau launched its first set of advertisements for the 2020 Census in Alaska this week, about one month ahead of the kick off to the 2020 Census in remote Alaska in January 2020. The advertisements will inform those living in approximately 220 Alaska Native villages that a census taker will soon visit their home to count them in the 2020 Census. For the rest of Alaska, and the rest of the country, the 2020 Census begins in mid-March.

Top policy experts and trade organizations today launched the new “Privacy for America” coalition, which will work with Congress to support enactment of groundbreaking comprehensive federal consumer data privacy and security legislation.

VMLY&R announced the 2020 Census Media Vendor Day for the 2020 U.S. Census Paid Media Campaign. The event is designed to be accessible for media outlets that cover a wide range of audiences, demographics, and channels, as well media outlets that are small businesses, and women- or minority-owned.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations has contacted the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) legal counsel regarding an investigation into the media buying practices in our Industry.  The ANA has sent the following letter to its members.